Take Me The Way I Am
by thedopestofrainbows
Summary: Feferi has her eye out for a human boy she finds attractive, but will her arranged marriage and the fact she's a mermaid keep her from the love she wants? Rated T for sloppy makeouts. AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this idea has been just sitting around for a while, so I decided to publish it. It is obviously an AU. I have this, A JohnKat I might publish, a Glee/Homestuck crossover, and 2 other Glee fics, so they might not always update each week, but I will try my hardest!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck**

* * *

><p>It was noon again.<p>

The time when the day peaked; flowers began losing their morning freshness; the tide began pulling back. It was absolutely beautiful and Feferi loved it. She loved the way the ocean foam misted across the sand in the heat of the sun when it was at his tallest. She wasn't used to seeing much sunlight, so when she did, she lapped it up, not caring that her sensitive skin started to dry out, she could cleanse and moisturize it later.

It was also the seventh day that the most attractive creature Feferi had ever seen came down to the beach from his hive and sat on the sand. The girl swam silently to the surface and hid herself behind a rock, listening to the human talk to himself. Today marked an entire week since Feferi began lurking hind the large rock, watching the unnamed boy. It was as if it was a ritual. Everyday at noon he would come and drop a bottle with a rolled up piece of paper inside of it into the ocean and began talking, chatting, to some unseen person.

She flicked her elegant tail eagerly, waiting for him to start their daily routine. The fins on the mermaid's face fluttered gently by the ocean wind and she pulled herself on to the flat rock, hoping to get a better look at the other.

"Hey again, Aradia," he started. "Thingth have been kind of hectic again. KK came over for the firtht time in a while."

Feferi scuttled higher on her rock, cursing her fish tail for being unable to aid her in the ascent.

"I think thomething happened with John. He didn't tell me about it of courth. He doethn't talk to anyone anymore, but you knew that," he muttered, trailing his finger in the soft sand and sighing.

Trying to shuffle even closer Feferi slipped and tumbled over the rock, landing herself in the shallow water in plain view. The human boy jumped in surprise and Feferi turned her back to him, hiding her numerous fins and gray skin behind her voluminous black hair. There was a moment of silence with Feferi wishing the other would just turn away so she could swim down deep into her hive and try to forget this whole ordeal. She soon hear the water shifting though, and she knew she wasn't so lucky.

"Um, are you okay?" the human asked, his voice closer to her than before. Feferi panicked and ducked behind the large rock out of view before slipping into deeper water and darting as fast as she could back to her civilization under the sea. She navigated through the familiar trenches back to her kingdom and hive.

Her heart was pumping her pink blood through her body faster than the quickest fish in the sea. Did that just happen? Did the human boy see her? She hoped he hadn't. Land dwellers were always scorned in her superior society since they only believed they were fake. It was dishonorable and disgraceful to their intellectual civilization and it was decided they would keep themselves separated and the underwater existence was to be kept secret. Because of this, she had never talked to a human and one hadn't ever talked to her. She didn't understand why after so many years, her people couldn't just let it go. Humans and merpeople looked similar and could even communicate! They had emotions and the human boy treated her nicer than her own people would. Asking if someone was okay isn't something that went on in their society.

She swam over and sat on the lip of her recuperacoon. A swarm of small white beings surrounded her and her black lips curved into a gentle smile. She gestured for one of her precious cuttlefish to come closer. She weaved her fingers delicately through its small tentacles and giggled. She always loved her precious cuttlefish. She picked it up and held it to her face, the mollusk's W shaped eyes peering into hers.

"Do you think Aradia is his lost matesprit? He sea-med reel-y attached to her," she pondered as if she were having a conversation with the smaller organism.

"Wwho are wwe glubbin' about?" Feferi shrieked at the intrusion and moved away from her window. The cuttlefish surrounding her began to angrily swarm to the man who snuck up from the opening behind her. She calmed them down and sighed.

"Oh, it's nothing Eridan," Feferi responded flatly. Eridan huffed and swished his powerful tail, closing the space between the two.

Feferi had been lucky to be adorned with such elegant fins. They were wispy and lovely, in a glittering shade or magenta where a few scales would rest, and her tail was magenta as well, standing out against her gray body. Eridan, however, was more angular. The fins on his face and arms were sharp and the scales that covered them were rough and deep purple. His tail resembled that of a trout and his tailfin didn't fan as much and was grittier than Feferi's.

"Wwhere wwere you today? You'vve been actin' real fishy lately," Eridan said, huffing and batting away a cuttlefish who came too close to him. Feferi copied his huffy attitude.

"It's none of your business, Eridan. You don't have to grub-sit me all the time!" She swam from Eridan's reach and entered her nutrition block.

"Wwe're goin' to be wwed soon, so I wwant you to tell me wwhat the hell it is you do all day," Eridan replied snarkily, following her. Feferi gritted her teeth.

She hated arranged marriages. She always did and she always will. She hated them in the storied her lusus would tell her, and she hated it when she was told Eridan was to be her husband. Eridan, being the second highest blood color in the kingdom, however, was more than happy to have Feferi as his wife. The strong, intelligent and agile merman had proved worthy for any seadweller, but because of his self-centered and egocentric ways, he had few colleagues, let alone a potential matesprit. Feferi had nothing against Eridan but she wasn't flushed for him and in fact, she didn't even hold pale inclinations towards him. She really didn't like his snobby attitude and how demanding he was. He was so theatrical and dramatic and only cared about himself and it drove her insane.

"I'm not marrying you, Eridan, so stop saying that!"

The room filled with a stifling silence. Eridan broke it as he scoffed and narrowed his violet eyes at Feferi. He wasn't in the mood to deal with her immaturity. Fixing his purple cape, he swam through the window and left a now weary Feferi alone.

"Why can't he be as chivalrous as Mr. Human?" she pouted, thinking back to the landweller she had been spying on.

She swam back to her respiteblock and nestled herself within the green slime of her recuperacoon.

* * *

><p><strong>First chapter! What do you think? <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: here's a super short chapter! Thought I should go ahead and publish it since the things I have going on next would be too soon for this chapter.**

**I'm really glad I started writing this fic, even though I don't ship this pairing all that much! Thanks for making it worth it guys!**

**I've been getting some nice reviews! Keep them coming guys! Give me your feedback! I try to respond to all of those that I can. Some don't have reply links so I guess that means you are reviewing anonymously? Idk, I'm new here.**

**So I guess I'll answer a question I got in one review. **

**Yes Aradia is dead. I'll get to the details of her death later, but yes, our dear rust-blood has passed away. **

**Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Homestuck.**

* * *

><p>Feferi, against the advice of Eridan and other highbloods, continued to visit the human, secretly hiding behind her rock. Although she was hiding and she didn't think the other noticed her, he didn't talk anymore. He only sat on the beach and looked out into the water after depositing his bottle. It was a little disheartening to Feferi, who craved to hear his voice speak such heartfelt words to whoever Aradia was. Her time on the shore was consolation to having to go home to a nosy fiancé who would never give her any peace; however, without the comforting words of the land dwelling boy, she was at wit's end with Eridan.<p>

"No! I don't have to tell you where I've been! It isn't your business!" Eridan growled at her attitude. She had never gotten so angry with him before.

"You'vve been hooked by some other man, havven't you? Been sea-in' other guys?" Eridan questioned defensively.

"Oh, don't you carp using fish puns with me, mister!" she huffed. "And what if I have? There are other fish in the sea!"

Eridan stared at her in blatant shock.

"Yeah! Maybe I don't want to come home to a fiancé who only glubs about his own problems and can't even lend a fin to help me with anything!" Feferi rambled, swimming frantically in angry circles.

"Wwell, I hate to break it to ya, princess, but you havve no choice but to marry me. You fuckin' wwell know that."

"Not if I have any say about it!" Feferi bit back, clenching her webbed fists. "I don't want to marry you!"

Before Eridan could get another word in, she stormed from her window, leaving only bubbles in her wake.

"Fef! Get back here!" Eridan shouted after her.

He prepared to leave the room after her, but angry cuttlefish swarmed him, enabling him from chasing after the upset girl. He whipped his powerful tail against the smaller beings, forcing some of them across the room with such force, their shells broke open and they sank to the floor limp. Eridan huffed. A few less of these obnoxious creatures to worry about.

He broke from the angry swarm and exited through a hole in the ceiling of the structure. Looking around, he could see no sign of Feferi. He sighed. So much for chasing her down.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>Sollux threw his keys on the table beside his front door and collapsed onto his couch.<p>

Work today had been hectic. He had had to deal with more people than his social skills called for and it exhausted him. To top it all of, Karkat had called him angry and demanding he come over. Sollux could only chalk it up to the red head backtracking in his relationship with John, which was less of a relationship and more of Karkat toeing around his feelings for the raven-haired geek and the blue-eyed boy being too naïve to notice the blatantly romantic feelings laid out in front of him.

They were both hopeless.

Sollux had always promised to be there to pick up Karkat's broken pieces, but now he was just getting tired. He was tired of being ignored by his so-called best friend until he needed a distraction from John or a release of sexual tension. It was usually both and Sollux didn't really feel in the mood to get it up right now.

He looked out over to his pool.

Sollux had managed to do pretty well upon getting out of college. He managed his own company that was slowly but surely taking over and gaining a lot of power. It had given him quite a nice chunk of cash and he bought a house on the west coast, close to the ocean and away from the hustle and bustle of everyone else. Yes, that meant a longer commute to work on the few days that he had to go into the office, but that also meant total peace and quite for him to work on the databases at home.

He loved the ocean and water. Well, more like Aradia always preferred the ocean and the water, and Sollux just quickly learned why. He bought a pool even though he lived right by the ocean and converted it to salt water, so on days where he couldn't dip his feet into the sea, he could at least mimic the action and not worry about the chlorine messing with his already sensitive skin.

His phone rang, snapping him out of his train of thought.

"What ith it, athhole?" Sollux spat into the receiver.

"_Someone seems happy_."

Had Sollux added being tired of Dave yet? Because that was a thing that was quickly happening too.

"What do you want Thtrider?" he groaned, resting his arm over his dichromatic eyes.

"_Just wanted to know if you were up to spin some sick beats soon. The club's getting kinda antsy with all the shit that the current DJ's been spinnin,_" the other said monotonously. Sollux groaned remembering that Karkat was supposed to come over. How could he have forgotten.

"I dunno dude. I'll try and thee if I can penthil you in thometime."

"_Aight_," the other said before disconnecting the call.

That was one thing Sollux hated about some people. Not saying "bye" before hanging up. Aradia had always made sure to tell Sollux goodbye, stating that you could never know what could happen so you say goodbye every time you could.

Sollux let out another long sigh.

He couldn't think about Aradia today. Not today. He would get too emotional and he had to be the rock that Karkat could cry on. Today was not a day for him.

A knock came to his door and Sollux ran a hand through his hair before getting up to open it.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p><strong>Told you it was short! Like I said, next chapter is going to be longer and important I swear! But now we see some insight into Sollux's life!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's taken so long to update! Been a bit busy!**

**I get boggled down searching for ideas alot for this one. It just kinda started and I don't have an exact end in mind. So if you guys want to PM me, tweet me (NikoBoussniere), or send me a message on tumblr (seerofdespair) with some ideas or things you would like to see happen, I would be more than happen to incorporate them if I can!**

**Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Homestuck. le sigh.**

* * *

><p>She never stopped visiting the human.<p>

She would return late at night and sneak in so that confrontations with Eridan were kept to a minimum, and she stayed out in the sun to avoid seeing other seadwellers. Yes, her scales were starting to flake and her hair grew gangly against the dry skin, but it was better than going back to the sea, where she was just a trapped princess waiting to be wed off.

But one day, her smooth skin split from lack of moisture and her tyrian blood spilled over her gray skin and she knew she'd have to get back to the ocean. But it wasn't even noon, so she had yet to see her human boy.

She hesitantly slipped back into the water from her rock and swam deep into the trenches, past multiple colorful schools of fish and exotic sea life. She greeted them as she passed and returned to her kingdom. Slipping in through a window, she was able to reach her bedroom easily. She would need to be quick if she wanted to return to her human without being noticed.

"Halt!"

Feferi froze at the sound of Eridan's voice. She turned to him and was greeted with two bulky jade-blooded guards holding her down.

"Wwhere ya been, Fef?" Eridan asked dryly, swimming in front of her. She thrashed against the hold of the stronger men.

"Let me go!" she wailed, wriggling in a vain attempt to get free.

"They aren't gonna let you swwim awway. I got 'em under my persuasion," he said, which would explain why they weren't listening to her. They were to listen to and act on commands given by the highest blood around them, and Feferi should have been able to have herself released.

She would have to result to controlling them, reaching her power over Eridan's violet blood.

"I command you to unhand me at once," she said, her voice low. The jade-bloods were too weak to refuse her orders and let her go. Eridan, however, was not so easily swayed. He growled as Feferi darted from the palace. He chased her relentlessly, determined to catch her this time and not let her get away, but Feferi was the fastest swimmer in Alternia and Eridan was no match for her agility.

From the folds of his dark cape, he produced a white wand. He didn't want to have to result to this, but he had no choice. Feferi needed to stay at the kingdom at all times.

"I'm so sorry, Fef," he mumbled before striking his wand in her direction.

Zaps of hot white power tore through the water and hit Feferi and she cried out as her skin ripped wide across her back, but she couldn't stop swimming. She couldn't return to that kingdom where she was just a caged trophy, waiting to be sold off, so despite her injuries, she swam, leaving a trail of bubbles and magenta blood in her wake.

In no time at all, she had lost Eridan, but she was also losing blood quickly, and with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she came to the realization that she might die. As her vision blurred, she let salty tears mingle in the salt water around her and her speed decreased to a stop as she blacked out.

* * *

><p>After that incident with that mysterious girl, Sollux hadn't been the same. She had the same long black hair as Aradia. It wasn't possible that the police were wrong, but Sollux had a hope in the back of his mind that they were. He had been questioning himself ever since he saw that girl fall off the rock. He frequented the beach behind his house more, now at least three times a day, hoping he could see her again.<p>

He tucked his hands into his yellow and black striped hoodie as the brisk air bit at his skin. He was about to head down to the ocean now, and he was prepared to wait a while.

"Damn winter," he muttered, stepping through the brush and shivering closer into the fleeting warmth of his jacket. It was the middle of the day and the sun was out but it was still very cold. He could hear the ocean tide's slow and weary song as it was tugged, and he knew he was getting near. That sweet tune was able to coax away all of the stress and anxiety for a few moments. However, in one breeze of the gentle wind, his breath was stolen from him as he gazed upon the same beached girl.

Covered in what looked like blood.

"Oh thit, thit, thit, thit." The lisping boy hurdled over the remaining brush and over the slippery sand.

Nearing her, he noticed the strange physical features of the girl.

Her deep pink blood stained the sand around her gray body and her two horns glistened in the sunlight as her tail, not legs, lay lifeless and limp in a tangle of fins and sea water garments. On her elbows and hands, there were pinkish scales, neatly groomed and transitioning flawlessly into smooth, gray, rubbery skin. The fins on her face and arms fluttered in the breeze and her gills sputtered for the water they couldn't find. But none of that caught Sollux's eyes as much as her face, even as life dripped from her, she looked peaceful and serene, her hair as if it were carved from the sleekest ebony, curving and weaving so perfectly around her form.

Sollux came back as the elegant look was stolen with the furrow of her eyebrows and a gasping breath.

He scurried over and picked her up. Lifting her with ease, he only wasted a second on what to do next.

"Hey. Come on. Don't die on me," he said, plowing through the brush and sand up to his backyard. He gently sat her in his pool, thanking any high power that he converted to a salt water pool before going to get medical supplies. Inside his house, he frantically dug through his bathroom cabinets and closets to find anything to help. He knew that warm water made blood flow faster and he needed to close up bleeding wounds on the other being before she bled dry. With all that he could carry in his hands, he darted back outside, his lithe figure making quick work of the distance.

"_Oh god, what do I do? What do I do?_"

Leaning all the materials against the edge of the pool, he jumped in wearing all of his clothes and pulled her drifting body closer. He inspected the damage and found deep burns across her back that had produced blood. Sollux reached over and grabbed rubbing alcohol, flipping the mermaid over and lifting her exposed skin from the water. Dabbing lightly at the wound, he felt no reaction from the body below, which was a bit unnerving. He wrapped her torso, minding her gills, to the best of his ability and let her float in the water.

Once she was tended to, Sollux realized the heavy fabric of his clothes sticking to his body in some places, and feeling the awkward material lightly brush his tender skin, suspended in water. He shuddered and leaned again the pool wall, removing his tinted glasses and showing his dichromatic eyes. He worked on squeezing stress away from the bridge of his nose. A slight buzzing came from and object on the pool ledge and Sollux picked up his phone and flipped it open, seeing he had received a text message.

_**HEY DIPSHIT, YOU BUSY?**_

_**Yeah, 2orry kk. 2ome of u2 have liive2 two attend two, you know**_

_**DON'T ACT LIKE SUCH AN AVOIDING, PUSSY-GUZZLING BITCH. CAN I COME OVER?**_

Sollux looked over to the girl floating in his pool and scowled.

_**2orry, ii'm not at home now. maybe when ii get home iif ii'm not two tiired.**_

_**BULLSHIT.**_

Sollux groaned at how easily he was sniffed out.

_**liike ii 2aiid, ii lead a whole other life you can't even handle. why don't you go two gamzee'2 or 2omethiing?**_

He snapped his phone shut and set it back on the ledge, not wanting to talk to his grouchy friend. He knew he'd regret it later, but he didn't want to deal with the other right now. He turned his head back to the floating girl upon hearing a burbling chirping noise. Wading over to her, he noticed bubbles coming from her gills. That's what was making the strange noise.

"Hey, you aren't dying on me are you?" he asked warily, shaking her.

Suddenly, gray eyelids flew open and she gasped, the chirping noise stopping as she did so. Sollux's eyes widened in seeing her yellow eyes, looking as if she's been struck by jaundice and grayish-pink irises darting around her surroundings. They stared at each other for a while before the mermaid opened her black lips and shrieked, showing a full set of razor sharp teeth and a magenta tongue. Sollux covered his ears in agony until she settled down.

"Jethuth _fuck_!" he screamed, shaking his head and trying to rid his ears of the ringing. The mermaid looked down sullenly and made a bubbling noise in her throat that sounded close to a 'glub'.

"Sorry…." She said, flicking her tail and splashing water on the side of the pool.

Sollux was surprised to hear the similar language come from her mouth.

"You thpeak Englith?" he asked. The other cocked her head.

"What's Englith?" she asked. "I always suspected that humans just knew how to speak in the Alternian tongue."

Sollux stored the lack of a language barrier at the back of his mind and decided to focus on other things.

"What are you?" he asked. The other grinned, flashing those shark teeth again.

"I'm a troll!" she said excitedly.

Wow. Sollux wasn't expecting that. Of the RPGs he played, trolls were always stumpy and angry little monsters that lived on land, not water.

"And you live under the thea?"

"Well, shore! We all do!" she responded.

"Tho have you been thpying on me or thomething?" Sollux asked, wanting to confront her about that time on the rock. He hopped out of the pool and sat on the ledge, grimacing at the cling of the jean fabric. He noticed his troll acquaintance turn pink in the face as she returned her gaze to something in the water and he smiled. That was cute.

"Well, uh, it was more interesting to listen to you than to Eridan." She looked up to him, trying to avert the topic. "Who's Aradia? Is she your lost matesprit?" she asked hopefully with wide eyes. Sollux flinched.

"I'm going to take a wild gueth at what that meanth and thay yeth. We were really clothe. Alwayth together," he stated solemnly, looking down t his shoes which were still soaking up the salt water. He soon felt a webbed hand on his knee and looking into her eyes, he could feel the sympathy sink into him from the contact.

"I'm sorry." Sollux gave her a weak smile. "It'th fine," he stated, looking deep into her gray irises that were speckled with hints of pink.

"What'th your name?" he blurted.

"I'm Feferi!" she exclaimed. Sollux smiled at her enthusiasm. She reminded him of Aradia that way. Minus the horns, gray skin, fish tail…

"Well, I'm Tholluth and it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Thollux-"

"No, no. With an 's' and an 'x'," he corrected. Feferi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"What's an 'ess ana eck'?" Sollux pursed his lips as he pondered.

"You live under the thea and you thwim," he started. Pointing a finger at her, he continued. "Now you thay it."

"I live under the sea and swim," she repeated. Slowly, Sollux watched it click in her mind.

"Oh your name is Sollux!" she said, swimming in happy circles.

"Yep."

"Do all humans talk fishy like that?" she asked, returning by him and swimming on her back.

"No. Jutht me. I have a lithp. It kinda thuckth," he sighed, inspecting her body for more damage. "When do I need to get you back home?"

"Never!" Feferi shouted, panicked. Her eyes were wide and she lost her buoyancy and sank a bit. "I can't ever go back!" she said rapidly, putting her hand on his knee again. Sollux stared at her with disbelieving eyes.

Why couldn't she go back?

She seemed terrified and Sollux didn't want to put her through whatever was going on down there, so with an answer in place he shrugged.

"I gueth you can thtay here if you want."

Little did he know, keeping a mermaid in your pool wasn't going to be the smoothest of rides.

* * *

><p><strong>So what'd you think? Please review, I'd love some feedback! <strong>


End file.
